Google Dropping Paid Search Query Data To 3rd Parties

A post by AJ Ghergich earlier today reports that Google may soon be dropping paid search query data they currently share through their API with 3rd party vendors like Kenshoo and Marin Software and other PPC management tool companies.

Basically Google will do the “not provided” to paid search management tools that they did to organic results.

Paid Search Going Secure Too!

The discussion in the comments is informative and worth all paid search workers reading. Apparently the information could still be available in the individual Adword accounts. Ghergich reports:

This will also have an affect on website analytics packages but we’ve not yet heard about anything with Google Analytics

Services that use this query data may have no way to access it anymore

This change is expected in the next few weeks. Source also notes that, in their opinion, another possible motive for the change by Google is that less data leads to less accurate AdWords decisions which increases ad spend.

Discussion in the comments touches on the impact this may have with anti-trust problems. Given it stops the sharing of people’s information it could go through without problems. But if the EU sees it as isolating the information from PPC management tools yet offering it inside the Adword accounts it could be another issue.

The information would have to be restricted to Google’s Adwords Editor also, or this could be seen as Google manipulating things in favor of their own products?

Either way if this rolls out in the next few weeks the paid search industry is going to have a serious upheaval – agencies that oversee huge spends will have to employ more people if they are limited to getting their information from inside individual accounts.

Also if it is in those accounts then the download of spreadsheets will still be an option and companies will be scurrying to adopt some method to import them in to their software.

Even if the download option were to be dropped, if the information is in the individual accounts there would be ways to scrape it so what is Google doing but merely creating a disrupt that may result in increased spends for a short period.

Now if Google were to completely drop the keyword query data that would be another story. While marketers would develop ways to capture some conversion information using landing pages and very tight adgroups etc. What Google may not have thought of is many would go elsewhere.

This is going to be a dangerous play for Google. The small businesses they were growing could move to advertising on Yelp and other growing local platforms. The importance of mobile could drive advertising there quicker than it has been growing recently and new ways could be developed to reach them without search.

Meet Aussiewebmaster

Frank Watson (aka Aussiewebmaster) has been involved with the online marketing industry since the web’s inception. Between his knowledge of the space and the connections developed over 20 plus years working there, he can help your business succeed online.